Unhidden
by Lomonaaeren
Summary: HPDM slash. As he waits for Harry to get ready for a party at Malfoy Manor, Draco controls his impatience- for a rich reward. COMPLETE.


**Title: **Unhidden

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.

**Pairing: **Harry/Draco

**Warnings: **Established relationship, slight angst

**Rating: **PG-13

**Wordcount:** 1100

**Summary: **As Draco waits for Harry to get ready to go to a party at Malfoy Manor, he tries to control his impatience—for a rich reward.

**Author's Notes: **Another of my Advent fics, for eelegantlyeevil, who asked for a fic based on Eric Clapton's "You Look Wonderful Tonight." This is based more on the backstory than on the actual lyrics, which is Clapton getting impatient because his wife wasn't ready for an event. Happy birthday, too, eelegantlyeevil!

**Unhidden**

"_Harry_."

There was a quiver of light from beneath the closed bedroom door, but Harry didn't come out, and didn't answer.

Draco leaned on the wall next to the bed and stared down at his own silver robes, trimmed with green. Harry was wearing the opposite, green robes trimmed with silver. Harry _knew _that. They had _discussed _it. Harry had declared that he was willing to wear them, despite teasing from his friends about Slytherin House colors. It meant something to Draco, that Harry was willing to appear as his date at a party in the Manor, wearing clothes that would proclaim his allegiance to Draco and parts of Draco that had always been set in opposition to Harry.

There were still some people who didn't believe the idea of Harry Potter being with Draco Malfoy, despite the announcements in the _Daily Prophet _and the stolen photographs and the public kisses. Draco's friends were among them.

If they saw Harry making a gesture that the Harry Potter they had known would never make, they might finally see, and believe.

But only if they arrived at the party on time. Draco raised a hand and scratched at the door again. "Harry," he tried. "Are you having trouble with the fastenings of the robes? I can—"

"Kreacher helped me." Harry's voice was as clear and shallow as a pond, and without movement.

"Then what is the _problem_?" Draco's voice deepened to a hiss despite himself.

Silence.

Draco whirled away and stalked to a couch that he had added to Harry's bedroom once it became _their _bedroom. He needed to have a place to relax, he had explained, and study, and, when Harry looked vaguely horrified at the thought of studying in a bedroom, he had demonstrated, vigorously, what other uses it could be put to.

Draco touched his hip, which had ached for days after that, and smiled, but his smile faded as he once again stared at the closed bedroom door.

Harry had agreed. He had _said _he would. He knew how important this was to Draco, and he had agreed about that, too. He had touched Draco's face in this very room, his fingers exploring gently along Draco's jawline, and his green eyes lit up with the sunlight. Those eyes were behind the square, ugly glasses that Draco hated, as usual, but that was the kind of battle that Draco had learned to give up.

"I promise," Harry whispered. "I might not like most of your friends that much, but they're important to you, and they _ought _to believe you. I'll come with you and make sure they do." His hands had tightened on Draco's, and he had leaned in to kiss him on the ear. "Anything that you want."

And now had come the day of the party—a birthday party for his mother, it would _disgrace _them if they were late—and Draco could feel his breath coming short at the thought that Harry had changed his mind and didn't want to show everyone this gesture after all. Maybe he would do something later to show how close they were, what they meant to each other. Draco knew better than to think Harry would want to keep their relationship a secret from his friends.

But they had said it would be _this _gesture, now, tonight. If he wasn't having trouble putting on the robes, what in the name of Merlin was taking Harry so long?

Draco had almost opened his mouth and ordered one of the house-elves to go in to Harry, whether or not he wanted help, when the bathroom door clicked open.

Draco spun around.

Harry stood in the doorway, wearing the robes that he had agreed to wear, fastened in the right way. That was all Draco saw at first, with how his eyes darted over Harry and lingered on his face and his hair, the stance he took, his head lowered but his eyes alive with challenge.

His _eyes_.

Harry's glasses were gone.

Draco came towards him on shaky legs, and reached up with hands that trembled. He meant to touch Harry's face, but instead his hands hovered on either side of his cheeks, as if he would spoil things if he touched him. Draco almost thought he might.

Harry clasped his right hand, holding it steady, and turned his head into Draco's touch. His blazing eyes were alight with love and brilliance, and Draco felt the world turn around him. Even _he _had never realized how bright Harry's eyes were, how radiant, and he thought he had spent more time staring into them than anyone else.

"I don't want to hide," Harry whispered to him, his voice a boom. Or maybe that was only Draco's perceptions, given the slow, choked boom of his own heart. "Anything about us, anything that we are. I realized—I realized that I've been hiding behind my glasses for a long time. I used them to keep from looking at you, to keep from looking at articles in the paper that I didn't want to read, to keep other people from seeing what I felt. I don't like them anymore, but I didn't know how to get rid of them."

He slid his arms around Draco and pulled Draco flush against him .Draco closed his eyes, shivering.

"So I decided that I would cast a charm on my eyes to improve my vision, and see what happened with them." Harry said nothing for a second, and Draco opened his eyes, wondering if this was a dream and it had ended. Harry was smiling straight at him, beautiful and moving and _wonderful_. "For tonight. I don't know if it'll last longer than that. But I want to stay—I want to be unhidden, and that's the way it'll be. For tonight, at least, and longer than that if it goes well."

For the first time, he looked Draco straight in the eye and whispered, "If you like it."

Draco kissed him, because there were no words, because he realized now how long it would have taken Harry to get the charm right when he had trouble seeing what he was doing, because this mattered more than being perfectly on time to the party, because he could imagine the way people would stare when they walked in together.

Because he could see Harry's eyes.

He drew back from the kiss, smiled at Harry, and drew him forwards, down the stairs, away from the mirror, into the fire.

**The End.**


End file.
